Sailfish Sailboat Sailing | The Boat that Started Sunfish Sailing 

The old style rudders do kick up. The wing nut adjusts the tension at which it breaks free and flips up. For what they are they actually work pretty well once you get the adjustment dialed in. I've got a '67 that I like to call my "Spirit of Tradition" boat and my kids think it's fun because it's so old school.

Well, memories. It was 1958 as I recall, when I was twelve, when I built my first sailboat. Wasn't a Sailfish, but a clone from some magazine; they called it a Sandpiper. I put alcort fittings on it except for the sail, my mother had insisted that she would make one, and Dacron was Dacron wasn't it? She made it out of nurse's dress material, and it soon looked more like a spinnaker than the OEM sail. As far as I could tell the hull was identical to a Sailfish, and I raced it against them at the Quannapowitt YC. Learned a lot, but couldn't beat them upwind with that spinnaker. Off the wind? It was a rocket. I built a sliding seat for it and would sit with my feet on the rail while it flew across the lake on a beam reach. About the hull. It had less rocker than a Sunfish, so easier to get on a plane all else equal, which they weren't. Ever wonder where the Sunfish hull got its shape? After my time with the Sandpiper I raced Snipes. At one point I had a Snipe trailer that form fitted a Snipe hull. I needed to move a Sunfish, so slid the Snipe off and the Sunfish on, it fit exactly! What Alcort had done, I believe, was to "splash" (make a mold from one hull to create a mold for another) a Snipe and use that exact shape for the Sunfish. The Snipe was designed, when? the 20's or 30's? It is a beautiful handling boat but too much rocker to plane as easily as a modern dinghy. The Sunfish has the same "problem" compared to a Laser, for example. IMHO that rocker is what makes the Snipe and Sunfish better tactical and strategic boats to race.

"America's Yacht", she's a wet and wild ride. The version that you sailed is the Alcort Super Sailfish MKII, fiberglass hull. There is also a wooden Super Sailfish, same hull dimensions, and the boat that started it all, the wooden Standard Sailfish, 11' 7" with a 65 sf sail rig (think Minifish). We have owned all 3 and kept the Standard and Super. You sit on your butt to sail, and lean back to tack is easier. After capsize, it's easier to crawl back aboard aft vs over the footrails. Our Super is actually a Sailfish 14 "Deluxe", circa 1952, which has added rubrail, tow rail, a Dri-Dek coaming and fancier bow handle. The Sailfish benefits from a longer daggerboard, we use the 39 inch 1960s Spoon Tip. That plate on top of the rudder releasing mechanism acts like a spring board, when the wing nut is looser, if the rudder hits an obstacle the keel latch plate cup can deflect down enough to release the vertical hinge plate. Tighten the wing nut all the way down and that rudder blade would break off before the hinge plate released. One upgrade to the MKII was a plastic tube that slid over the carriage bolt, to remove side to side slop. There is less slop to begin with compared to the old style Sunfish rudder, as the Sailfish transom is about 3 inches shorter. And on the wooden Alcorts the carriage bolt went directly down through the 3/4 inch oak transom, so no slop there! More info about Sailfish on our blog and youtube page smallboatrestoration.blogspot.com/search?q=sailfish+

I learned to sail on a Sailfish. As a teenager, I'd go out hunting Sunfish on our bay, somewhat because the Sailfish was faster, and somewhat because it always seemed I was a better sailor than the typical people out on the family Sunfish. When Granddad was teaching me, he was on helm once, and I had mainsheet. We hit a larger wave which submarined the boat, and I washed off and was hanging onto the the sheet being dragged through the water trying to keep my head above water yelling "Granddad, STOP" and him yelling "Let go!" and me yelling back "NO!!!!!" He was like, "I can't stop until you let go!" Later when I was in high school, there was an O'day 20 on our lagoon, with a cute blonde girl who always sat on the foredeck motoring out to sail. So one time I was all the way across the other side of the bay, when one of the bronze straps which held the tiller to the rudder snapped. I was steering the boat (such as I could) by holding the back of the rudder blade, when that O'day came by and asked if I was ok and needed help. Because I am a stubborn idiot (nothing has changed since then, TBH) I said I was fine, and of course declined the offer of a tow where I may have had a chance to talk to the cute girl. I did manage to slowly sail the boat back home while luffing the sail significantly so that I could actually hold the rudder on course. I'd have to switch hands every so often as my hand would cramp up. If I had the spare cash, I'd probably order a Fulcrum Rocket to have a fun, easy to sail boat like this again.

I picked one of these up last summer for $150, ready to sail. Lots of fun with my 3 year old. Got a deck pad over the winter to put on it this year and I think I'll keep it until my boy is 5 or 6, then get something we can cruise in.

It works best if you lean back when tacking instead of leaning forward. The Sailfish you sailed looks just like mine! The mast on these older versions are actually tapered. The pulley doesn’t seem to have any impact when actually sailing. The Sailfish is fantastic in light winds, due to it’s shallow narrow hill. If the wind is over 15 mph I plan on getting very wet. It is easy to paddle with a kayak paddle, and is supposed to make a great SUP. It is a great dive boat. I don’t believe that there has been a Sailfish regatta since the mid 70s. I think it’s about time we had another one!

I picked up a mid sixties. Cartopped it home. It was just at the end of its restoration when the previous owner broke his hip and had to get rid of it.

I had one of those back in the early 1960's.

Lee , That boat looks like a mid 60's boat. The boat I learned on ( in 62) didn't have the binding, as I recall. And I do not remember the mast step having a raised area around it. And just a plain white sail. And it did not have the deck rails. jeff

Amy’s family had a Sailfish. I tried it before a Sunfish and it was miserable. I wanted to learn and quickly learned I could not sit comfortably on a Sailfish for more than 10 seconds. Then we bought our first Sunfish and we are loving them. Steve

4:09 4:10 4:15 😂

Wish you would have dressed as if you were from the 60's. Haha